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Workplace pensions

Last updated: 29 January 2021
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On this page

  1. Types of complaints we see
  2. What we look at
  3. How to complain
  4. Putting things right
  5. Detailed information for businesses

All employers must now organise pension arrangements for the benefit of their eligible employees - although historically this wasn't always the case. 

Where they did, larger employers would typically offer either a "final salary" (or defined benefit) pension scheme, or a " money purchase" pension scheme. The pension from the former is worked out by the number of years service and a final (or sometimes average) salary when you leave that employment. And the pension from the money purchase is based on the pot which accumulates from your and your employer's contributions. 

We can only look at a complaint about a workplace pension if it's about the way it's been administered by an FCA-regulated pension provider, or if it and/or its investments have been advised upon by an FCA-regulated business. 

This excludes many aspects of a final salary or money purchase workplace scheme - but if you feel you've been unsuitably advised to transfer from a workplace scheme to a personal pension or Self Invested Personal Pension, we can look at this - and you can find out more about this on our page about pension transfers. 

All complaints about workplace pensions which we can't look at are dealt with by the Pensions Ombudsman, and we'll let you know if this is the case. 

In general, as well as transfers from workplace pensions we can look at most complaints about the following: 

  • group personal pensions (GPPs) - a type of money purchase arrangement
  • small self-administered schemes (SSASs)
  • executive pension plans (EPPs)

Types of complaints we see

Some complaints we see are common to more than one type of workplace pension. For example, you may feel that a financial business: 

  • gave you unsuitable advice to start an employer-linked pension scheme such as a SSAS or an EPP
  • poorly administered the pension scheme
  • delayed paying your pension benefits or miscalculated them
  • took too long to arrange your workplace pension scheme or arranged it incorrectly 
  • inappropriately tied up capital invested in your workplace pension scheme, which may have resulted in delays in you receiving your pension income. 

  • GPPs are made up of individual personal pension plans, so most of the complaints we see about these arrangements are about the administration of the plans by an FCA-regulated product provider. 

    But you may have concerns about:

    • the individual advice given to you - but where the business says that it only gave general information to all the members of the GPP
    • the collective advice given to all members of the GPP

  • We see a wide variety of complaints involving SSASs. You may feel that: 

    • the financial business took too long to set up the pension arrangement, or set it up incorrectly
    • the investments recommended by the financial business within the arrangement were unsuitable or incurred excessive charges
    • the business took too long setting up the annuity payments after you'd retired

  • We see a wide variety of complaints involving EPPs. You may feel that: 

    • you were advised to start regular contributions rather than single contributions - and this has led to increased charges and/or an unaffordable commitment
    • you were misquoted the tax-free sum or amount of pension income
    • you were overpaid the tax-free sum or pension income and now you have to pay back some of it
    • the advice you were given to transfer to an executive pension plan led to excessive penalties being applied to your pension pot
    • the commission paid to business for providing the advice was excessive

What we look at

Group personal pensions

We'll look into the way your plan within the GPP has been administered - and whether errors have been made in that administration. And if we think advice was given to you by the financial business, we'll assess the suitability of that advice. 

But even if we decide that advice wasn't given, we'll still look at whether the information you were given was clear, fair and not misleading. 

Small self-administered schemes 

We'll take into account the: 

  • rules governing the scheme that were in place at the time of the event complained of
  • members' rights and duties of the trustees
  • general suitability of the advice given to you - if any

And if we decide that the financial business didn't give you advice, we'll still look at whether the information you were given was clear, fair and not misleading. 

Executive pension plans

We'll take into account: 

  • whether an EPP was the right type of pension scheme for you in the circumstances 
  • whether the investments within the EPP were suitable for you
  • what information you were given by the financial business when the EPP was set up and whether it was clear, fair and not misleading
  • whether a proper assessment had been done as to the likelihood of you being able to meet any regular premium commitments. 

How to complain

We only look at complaints that a financial business has had a chance to look at first. This means that, even if you bring your complaint straight to us, we still need to give the business an opportunity to respond to the complaint and put things right. 

If you've complained and business hasn't responded within the time limits or you disagree with the response, then we can start to look into it. 

Find out more about how to complain and what to expect when you bring a complaint to us. 

Putting things right

If we uphold your complaint, we'll tell the financial business what it needs to do to put things right. 

For complaints about the administration of a GPP, this could take the form of reconstructing the value of your policy if contributions have been applied late - this may involve the GPP provider applying extra units to a plan. If documents have been sent to a wrong address, or originals have been mislaid, we might tell the business to make a payment to you for the inconvenience this has caused, or to cover the cost of replacing the originals. 

For complaints involving a SSAS or EPP, if they involve administration issues, any compensation would be particular to what has gone wrong. If we decide that the investments within those plans are unsuitable for you, we might tell the business to pay financial compensation to the pension plan or directly to you. 

And in all scenarios, we might also make an award for any trouble and upset caused to you.  

Detailed information for businesses

Businesses can read more detailed information on handling complaints about workplace pensions.